View Full Version : Symbolism in the RWS 6 of Cups
Sorry, but I've never 'bought' the idea that this card is just about innocence and nostalgia. I've always felt there's something 'not quite right' but I've never spent the time to unravel my suspicions.
In February, Francesca wrote,
"I find that 6s have some hidden agenda. Why is he giving the girl flowers? It is a sweet gesture but the motives behind it should be questioned. On the surface the card depicts sweetness, innocence, happy memories, but is it all so much sugar-coating?"
Well, to begin with there's debate about the figures. Is the left-hand figure an adult, older child, dwarf? Is the right-hand figure a young girl or a grey-haired little old lady? This is also complicated by the abcence of obvious perspective. Are the cups really bigger than those which appear on the other cards? The only clue appears to be the uppermost cup, on top of the stone plinth, which suggests a container the size of a planter.
So why are the cups being used as planters? Why does each contain a single white, five-petalled, star-shaped flower? This must be of symbolic importance but I've no idea what or why.
Turning to look at the scene - I see a clear division between 'town/official' building and residential area. The left hand side shows the division marked by the stone plinth, showing an heraldic device [St Andrew's cross? on a shield {of protection}], steps up to the paved town area. An official-looking figure seems to be walking away. The issues here are not of an official nature, are not of societal interest? They are happening outside of the 'protected' area?
Is the larger figure a vendor or a giver - is the cup offered freely or is payment of some kind expected? One of the cup/planters is on top of the plinth - belonging to the official/town area? Does the figure have a right to offer the cup/planter to the other figure? Is it his to give/sell?
Rachel Pollack in 78DW says that 6s are about commuication. Are the figures speaking? What might be being said?
Why does the smaller figure show no sign of taking the cup/planter offered? The larger figure's knees are bent and he leans towards the smaller figure - he wants her to take it?
There seems to be a fair degree of agreement that the larger figure is a dwarf. The cards were designed in less PC times. Symbolically dwarves have been associated with the Underworld. "Coming from it and remaining linked to it, they symbolise those dark forces which are within us and which can so easily take monstrous shape..... they never minced their words but spoke the naked truth..... their pointed remarks had more than a hint of clairvoyance, pinpricks deflating self satisfaction..... guardians of buried treasure or of secrets...... guides and counsellors..... generally expressing themselves in riddles. Dwarves are also images of perverted lusts." The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols. Chevalier & Gheerbrant. ISBN 0-14-051254-3.
Uh oh! I don't like where this is leading..... and that bright red hood [a colour which attracts children]. Thank goodness the child has heeded the warning not to take pretty things from strangers.
But before I get carried away with my suspicions I must remind myself that these hoods were common medieval garb - designed to keep out the cold [as much as shield the face from view/ a caul of invisibility]. The liripipe [tail from the back of the hood] has in fact endured as a feature of formal academic dress [UK graduates and barristers robes still retain a liripipe]. So is the dwarf a teacher? A doctor [of the psyche?] A historian? Somehow I don't think so. I've been unable to trace the origins of the liripipe - and my suspicious mind is again seeing a possible phallic link.
Back to the child. I can only see one of the child's hands. She wears a white glove - of masonic significance? A symbol of purity.... ensuring that one does not make contact with anything unclean. So she has some protection? And this reminds me that the only other figure in the pack who wears hood with liripipe is the architect in the 3 of pents - and I understand there's masonic significance there.
But I'm still stumped.
"Tarot of The Heart" Thompson, Mueller & Echols ISBN 0-380-80900-1 says,
"In Jungian psychology, the presence of male and female figures directs our attention to internal male [animus] and female [anima] energies and the retreating adult tells us this is a recognition and developmental joining that we can only do alone. He cannot protect us".
Well, this gives me the best understanding I've found so far but your thoughts, views, comments are eagerly awaited.
Minderwiz
02-05-2003, 15:24
Mary K Greer in Tarot Reversals also points out that something about the card doesn't seem quite right - The tower, the guard, the disparity in size of the figures - she suggests that on rare occasions it represents 'childhood abuse, denied or fogotten, like happy family photographs that hide a dysfuctional truth'.
The first time I read that I took a longer look at the card and I can see what she means. I've never treated the card the same again
Moongold
03-05-2003, 00:29
Rachel Pollack also notes in "The Illustrated Guide to the Tarot" that some have seen a disturbing quality in the card. She comments that the child seems overprotected an unable to act on her own.
Tracy Porter comments in "Tarot Companion" that the items in the cups are flowers but to me they look more like stars. I cannot see any other flowers in the RWS that look like this. They are five pointed stars and I cannot find right now an explanation of the symbolism of this. The six pointed star means as above so below and is generally a positive symbol. Could the missing point mean that all is not right?
The picture is full of illusions and distortions. Some of them I used to attribute to PCS not being too hot on perspective but the same distortions are not evident to the same extent elsewhere in the deck. Perhaps she was just having a bad day?
Looking at the card now I see two faces. In fact I only saw one face for some months and that is the one which on closer examination is part of the hood. That face is looking up to the left of the picture in the direction of the retreating adult. The other face is not that of a child but she is looking downwards at an angle skewed from reality. There is definitely something odd about this child.
I find the whole picture quite disturbing, even grotesque, as well. The cup being offered to the smaller figure is almost larger than she and I wondered if it didnot represent some kind of bitter chalice.
I tried to find out something about PCS' childhood to see whether she was perhaps projecting some of her own experiences on to this picture. There is not enough information to know. Then I wondered if she was making an ironic comment about the treatment of children in the very early 20th century.
The 6's in other decks are not so disturbing as this, They are more accurately about communciation and happiness.
Thanks for bringing this up Aoife. It is something of a relief to acknowledge my doubts about the card.
Moongold
IMHO...
This card I like.....this is the card of the past........there is 2 sides to this card.
Fond memories and nostalgia, or not so fond memories and would rather the past stay in the past.
Now with the smaller figure having 2 faces, one face is looking up at the larger figure and excepting..."embracing the past".....The other face is looking away from the larger figure and unexcepting........."unwilling to embrace the past"...
The 6 of cups to me (most of the time) is the past card, it could be a past love (relationship) and old friend or a new one that you just "click" with (which feels like you have known each other forever), an event like a reunion, or a situation that requires past knowledge. So depending on which face you see at first glance and your initial gut feeling........it can be something or someone, that is either "excepting" or "unexcepting" (for the querent) from their past.
Cheers
Kazz
:TQC
I can understand why some people see a disturbing quality because of the perspective. Like Kazz, I usually read this card as the card of nostalgia, the past, memories. It can have both positive and negative meanings.
It's interesting that according to the Penguin dictionary of symbols, Flowers in general can be seen as a "symbol of the love and harmony characteristic of primeval nature. They become identified with the symbolism of childhood and to some degree that of the paradisal state of innocence."
5-petaled flowers--The pentagram is a five-pointed star. The five points stand for the number of the four elements plus the fifth element spirit. It represents the figure of man, the triumph of spirit over the baser elements.
Another quote from the Penguin dictionary of symbols, "The wearing of white gloves by Freemasons, is a symbol of purity, preventing unwitting and direct contact with anything unclean. " (Aoife already pointed this out.) I don't know if this should be viewed as a warning or simply as a symbol of the purity of children.
Most of the time I view the distorted look of the figures as a symbol that memories often become distorted over time.
Rose
Moongold
03-05-2003, 12:20
Originally posted by Rose
Most of the time I view the distorted look of the figures as a symbol that memories often become distorted over time.
Rose
What a very reasonable suggestion! Thank you :)
Moongold
Hi!
One more tidbit of info.
I did a search on Liripipe-until Aiofe posted this I didn't know what the hood was called.
The following website had this listing:
http://www.quinion.com/words/weirdwords/ww-lir1.htm
LIRIPIPE
The long tail of a hood in medieval or academic costume….Hoods like these were at first worn by academics as part of their formal dress; indeed a few universities still use the word liripipe for their graduates' ceremonial sashes. Later on, liripipes became part of everyday wear on a hood called a chaperon. Over time, liripipes became steadily longer, sometimes down to the ankles; this was hardly practical, so the liripipe was often wound around the head to keep it out of the way. As well as longer, it also grew more ornamental as time passed. The hoods went out of fashion in the fifteenth century and liripipe became a semi-fossil word…..
By the seventeenth century, the chaperon had become an item of female costume exclusively. About a century later the word began to be used figuratively for a married or elderly woman protecting a young woman-a chaperone, as we now spell it. One author explained that "Chaperon ...when used metaphorically means that the experienced married woman shelters the youthful débutante as a hood shelters the face".
Viewed in this way the hood in the 6 of cups is another symbol of protection, shelter, and safety.
Rose
paradoxx
03-05-2003, 19:49
Not to distract from the topic of the 6 of cups but several things are on my mind that are invoked by this thread so far.
The RW cards are intentionally vauge to hide something behind the veil (as AE Waite identifies in his book). However, the 6 of all the suits in this deck do in fact seem off as does the Lovers being the 6th major. although the lovers archetype is associated with the six of cups, two figures (although in this case what could be symbolically 2 children or somethign more ominous)in a guesture of trust and/or love, it is a question as to what the truth behidn this card and this deck are.
Since the Order of the Golden Dawn has a heavy hand in the current incarnation of the tarot (for good and for ill) it stands to reason tht the independent beliefs of the indivudals in the OGD may not be that of the most compassionate to traditional and biblical standards and may have associated more negative attributions to the number 6.
To me 6 is a number of change and chaos that comes with it. Six and nine (as the nines in this deck are also ominous)create a never ending spiral (6+9=15, 15 being the devi of the major arcania symbolizing oppression and conditioning)concluding with a new vision, something that those in power do not want others to have since having a new vision comes from one self and removes the need to conform to the norm while still providing society with their needs in new and innovative ways that provide the truth and comfort to those who seek such things.
firemaiden
03-05-2003, 21:15
Wow! Aoife, you have added so many new dimensions to this card. I think your insights and uneasy suspicions are delicious. You have opened a fascinating discussion. Thank you!
Especially promising, I feel are the explorations on deeper meanings for the dwarf.
The symbolic dwarf of fairytales, is often a gold miner - (hi ho, hi ho, it's home from work we go), I think also of Wagner's Niebelungen, pounding out their gold, hence, miners of hidden riches in the depths of the earth, in the underworld. The dwarf coming to surface then, and proferring a bouquet, is like the magical visitor bringing a gift from the under/inner world.
It is appropriate too that the flowers are stars. I also think back to P.L. Travers Mary Poppins series (the books are soo much richer than the movie). In in adventure, Mary takes the children for a visit into outerspace, amidst the stars. Like all of her magical adventures, in the morning, it is unclear whether this has been all a dream, or a real-life journey into a true other world. In every case, there remains one bit of evidence from journey to show that indeed, it had been no dream.
What the children find, awaking the next morning after their journey to the stars, (trying desperately to remember, but it has been decades since I had my hands on this book!!) is an actual bit of star, remaining behind on the night table.
I would like to think of the proferred star-flowers, as the symbol, the relic, the magical icon, the bit of proof, which surviving from one world into the other, gives tangible testimony that all was not in fact, a dream!
Memory is a also a kind of underworld. And relics (a lock of hair for example) are the magical objects which testify through time to the truth of memory.
Indeed the gift is bearer, as a cup, of memories, thoughts and feelings. It is interesting to also note what various authors say of this card (irrespective of the depiction being discussed).
For example, Papus hints that with this card, the hurdles placed in the way of love triumph. He also talks of widowhood in connection with this card.
The gift, on this card, has that flower of five petals. It has always seemed a little strange to me, for though there are wonderful five-petalled flowers as depicted, the five petals normally indicate either rose or apple. Here again, then, the poisoned apple of certain fairy tales comes to mind.
The smaller person, usually described as a child, is reminiscent (to me at least) of the young maiden/old woman (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/YoungGirl-OldWomanIllusion.html) illusion. If the 'face' of the girl is partially covered to the left, an older woman appears as if facing coily away from the giver (and facing the ground, towards the viewer) - the hair of one becomes the face of the other.
The same person has not a glove, but a mitten, implying, I can only presume, more extreme coldness - and yet the flowers are in blossom. Contradictory images are thus possibly juxtaposed.
Yet this is a card with which I personally associate many positive attributes, for harmony seems implied...
The main image remains, for this card, of a wonderful offering from one larger person who reverently bends forward in the floral offer towards a smaller figure having the main appearance of a child... a beautiful image.
I would like to think that though it is possible to see much more during a specific reading, the overall innocence and beauty of the overall motif is its more important aspect, and that the gift, as gift, is of the treasure of Love.
Wow! Thank you everyone for these wonderfully insight-full posts. I don't have time at the moment to contribute as lengthily as I would wish - but will come back later.
One thought occurs [as yet rather crude and un-thought-out] - in relation to 6s and VI The Lovers.... the issue of choice.
Perhaps the 6 of cups poses the question: will you protect/nurture or exploit/degrade?
In the 6 of wands are we being asked whether we will lead or follow?
In the 6 of swords are we being asked whether we will go [develop] or stay [stagnate]?
In the 6 of pents are we being asked whether we will give [of ourselves to others] or retain [self-interest]?
Phoenix_Down
07-05-2003, 16:23
Looking at the size of the cups compared to the size of cups on other cards, they are the same size. comparing the cups to the size of the characters, however, is where the distortion comes from. Perhaps this was to keep all the cups uniform (the cups on this card are just as important as the cups on other cards). This can also symbolize the greater importance of the cups to these characters. The cups in the other cards are typically as big as an adult's torso, so the seemingly oversized cups should seem bigger to them.
paradoxx
14-05-2003, 16:02
Originally posted by Aoife
Wow! Thank you everyone for these wonderfully insight-full posts. I don't have time at the moment to contribute as lengthily as I would wish - but will come back later.
One thought occurs [as yet rather crude and un-thought-out] - in relation to 6s and VI The Lovers.... the issue of choice.
Perhaps the 6 of cups poses the question: will you protect/nurture or exploit/degrade?
In the 6 of wands are we being asked whether we will lead or follow?
In the 6 of swords are we being asked whether we will go [develop] or stay [stagnate]?
In the 6 of pents are we being asked whether we will give [of ourselves to others] or retain [self-interest]?
I do agree with these interpretations and can be expanded upon.
pentacles: giving and recieving. also notice that thw figure on the right is (somewhat) trying to grab the coins or whatever they are (matter of interpreation) on the boot of the one who holds th sacales.
wands. the figure on the horse is the leader but he is also being led and protected by the three wand bearers flanking him. those behind are following the parade.
swords. is the figure steering leading or is he just taking orders. are the two his captives (extreme interpretation) or his payers.
cups. is the larger figure of the town hallship represented on the left or not a part of the town at all. only the figure on the right has a foot showing, is *she* stepping foreward to share or to take. and of course teh mitten and dress as oppposed to the shorter dress and bare hands.
all of these cards have very blatent contradicting symbols, and they are all connected in terms of symbolic representation i belive with (confusing) Gemini Duality.
paradoxx
20-05-2003, 02:41
I was just thinking about the Korn Album (disturbed i believe)cover with the young boy and his shadow protector behind him. This card is disturbingly reminicent (or vica-versa) of this hard metal rock and the lyrics within.
Inner child also comes to mind (once again Korn relates) but the four cups in the forefront of the card are strangely misplaced, even if the rest of the card is very calm.
These connections have been on my mind all day, just wanted to share.
Thank you Aoife for presenting this in here since it was fun for me to look at it and try to figure it out.
How about if this card represents the calmness before a shocking event that is about to come about? The environment is calm but the feel of tension is in the air. The guard with his weapon is slightly walking up and leaving, however, this implies that he was coming forward before turning around and going away.
This seems like a plot to cover up and conceal what is about to occur in any moment. Dwarf could be a part of this plot; she is the focus point since she is a major part of this conspiracy. Perhaps there is going to be an attack toward the castle and the dwarf has this duty to signal the attackers at the proper time to start the assault. The guard could have been coming to investigate the suspicious present of the dwarf in front of the façade; however, the guard then turns around because the innocent scenery of the dwarf presenting the flower to the child convinces him that things are under control.
The child has no parents around so the child is also a part of this scheme to fool the guard. This is not an accident that child is there except to play a role to convince the guard that there is noting to worry about. It is quite understandable that the child is not accepting the obviously large and heavy flowerpot since without another adult how this small figure is going to carry such a large jug around. She and the other child like figure are just jesting almost motionless to generate a peaceful environment, however, dark and light shadows painting their faces away from the guard shows their secretive intentions.
The flowers are all facing forward except one, which is facing away from the viewer. Could this be a signal given by the dwarf to gesture the attackers to back off for now? Because of the signal of the flower it is possible that the actual attack would never happen. The conspirators might decide to change their plans or try it some other time. However, since only one of the flowers out of six cups is looking away this could be an indication that the dangerous plan could go ahead using caution.
Here because of the white glove on the child the conspirators could be the good guys waiting to attack the castle and free some hero or force, incarcerated behind the darkly painted windows. It is not quite known if they are ever going to be successful but this is not the point since this is a scene just before the shocking event and not during nor after.
Of course it depends where this card falls, but in general I think this card means that we have created a make believe castle of lies for ourselves. In order for things to change for better we should go under some bitter shock or surprise to whip us awake from our self-defeating guardedness and phony tranquility. Everything is quite for now, but if we do not change our ways the whole matter might turn ugly. I said ugly but not necessarily bad. What might happen could be shocking and painful to confront but it is essentially good for us in the long run. It is like a painful lesson that shocks us to improve ourselves in some fashion and turning a bad thing to good.
Mycelia
Little Baron
18-06-2003, 07:15
I always saw this card as a card of happyness, even though the 'dreamlike' distortions have always stood out - or should I say, bad-dreamlike distortions!
When I look into these characters, I cannot see anything that disturbs me too much. In the 'dwarfs' defence, his face is kind and the way in which he is presenting the cup, holding it and bending down to the other character, is warm and gentle.
I like the juxtaposition mentioned regarding the two different kinds of buildings, side by side. Maybe this represents two different ways of life. Maybe the man on the dwarfs side of the image is a co-worker in his 'side of life' which oposes the way of life that the old woman has in her smaller village community on the right of the card.
Could this old woman actually be the mother or grandmother of the 'dwarf'? I apologise for calling him a dwarf - its just so you know who I am referring to. Has he moved on to better things and has returned to offer his mother the fruits of his labour? Is there a bitterness in her that makes her turn away (the second face which does not look at him)?
Maybe, when this older mother looks at her son, she only sees him as a child and not the adult that has moved away and built a successful career - the child that she feels abandoned her. Is there actually no physical distortion at all? Are the clothes that he wears just memories of hers - clothes that she remembers him wearing so many years ago. Is she seeing the child and not the man?
I am probably way off here but it is just as I see it right now.
Yaboot
I am so creeped out by this 6 of Cups card now. Thoughts of Little Red Riding Hood and her chaperon rouge...
Elle
paradoxx
03-08-2003, 01:31
In my opinion, the Rider-Waite is one of the creepiest Tarots out there. The symbolisim covers so many topics, some of which are obvious others are more hidden. The artist of the line drawings did much of this on purpose leaving the most estoric to the subconcious. The 6 of cups is one of the best examples of this opinion.
I would like to see the Aquatic Tarot designed as an actual deck, it would eliminate much of the negativirty present.
see www.facade.com for an Electronic Aquatic Tarot reading.
Going back to what Aoife said who is who? To me the proportions of the figures suggest that the figure on the left with the red hood holding the cup and smelling the flower is the child. The figure to the right looks like a small woman. Who is giving whom the cup with flowers?
I don't see anything sinister in this card. It almost appears as a card of, not only nostalgia, but of passing on inheritance(either material or of wisdom), of moving from one generation to the next. The old generation shrinking into the past and the next generation growing large in proportion as their influence increases.
I see the guard as walking back and forth across a set path ticking off passing time like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. I also read nurturing in this card although that may be my stretch and not clearly visible in the images. Perhaps I get the feel of a protected courtyard, carefully tended flowers with a guard watching over, (the tower to the left accentuates this watched over/protected feel).
Reversed, a negative implication in this card would be nurturing turning to smothering. The carefully tended courtyard turning into a prison of sorts.
Woof
Chronata
03-08-2003, 20:06
It's really interesting that a "sinister nature" is being examined in regards to this card.
I was always one to think of this card as happy and nostalgic, with that idea of "Selective Amnesia" where a person will choose to only remember the good and happy times of the past and not, perhaps, the reality, which is more of a balance between joyous and sad events.
Recently, I lost the deck I have used for the last decade, and had to go back to my RWS, and in the process of rediscovering the symbolism...I too began to see "something not quite right"...
However, the symbol that disturbs me the most in this card is actually the figure in the backround that is turned away, and leaving.
It seems to me to be the idea of a parent...or at least an adult who is not being very responsible for watching a child, or perhaps that they see something might be strange about the situation but they have chosen to ignore it..."turn thier back" on thier responsibilities, so to speak.
I am finding this thread to be very fascinating, and thought provoking as well.
greetings,
i too have enjoyed this thread. It has caused me to look deeper into the card and notice things i had not noticed before ......such as the comparison in color. The cup that is being given, or received, has yellow or golden foliage about the star flower, which may last forever; where as the other cups have green foliage which may whither and die. I have not come up with my own true interpretation to this detail just passing thoughts, but I have just noticed it while I was reading this thread and examining the card.
I also see the female as wearing a mitten not a glove. But I don’t know if there is any type of relevance there, as both a mitten and glove are used for protection. Also, perhaps it is just the printing of the card but the mitten is not the same white hue as the females hair, or the star flowers. Both her hair and the flowers have a more pure whiteness and stand out far more to me than the mitten. The mitten is the same hue as her coat. Does anyone else see this in their card? I do not know if there is any significance to this detail but I will put more thought into finding my own interpretation of this card.
may blessings,
humbly yours,
robyn.
For the sake of making future cross-references to discussions on the same card easier, I just here add a note to the thread What's with the mitt???? (http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18421).
As to the colouring mentioned by Robyn, I wonder which version of the RWCS deck is being used, for the mitten is quite white on mine, whereas the hair is not.
I make further comments, regarding the mitten, on the linked thread.
About mitts
i think this is a card about consciousness-unconciousness. We send to the unconciouss area those memories or events that feel to us uncomfortable with moral laws. So as we feel guilty forget all about them. Only in disguise the come to surface again, very few and with a need to take them with a touch a purity; the mitts prevent us from feeling dirt or sinful.
i think too about the guard, who is curiously giving the back to the scene. The guard here could be our moral censors, like education, religious beliefs, etc.
When i see this card in reverse often think about a psychological process allowing the querent be aware about certain issues in his/her life.
Be happy, Silvie.
firestorm
15-11-2003, 13:58
Interesting thread! I don't know WHAT to think now! ;-) The only real question that I still have is the significance of the guard in the background. I'm of the belief that if its in the card it means something, but to me, the happy memories-nostalgia theme doesn't necessarily need the guard, walking away, and without color.
Also, someone brought up the flowers looking like stars. I found this under The Sixes in "The Complete Book of Tarot" a step by step guide to reading the cards by Juliet Sharman Burke.
"The Six is the number of equalibrium, harmony and balance. The six-pointed star is formed out of two triangles, one pointing up toward the spirit or heavens, and the other pointin down toward the body or earth, which symbolizes balance between them."
I use this card as past memories but I have found this also :
"Past infulences favorably affect present life conditions.
Creating new atmosphere;forming new relationships; experiencing new learnings."
Also , the building on the left, what are those 3 wand like sticks, sticking out of the top of the building. Is there a reason for them?
Numerology & The Divine Triangle. by Faith Javane and Dusty Bunker
After reading these post on the 6 of cups I went looking through books to settle my thoughts on this card. I found this from the book mentioned above.
"The six cups are brimming with flowers, showing fruition. The five-pionted-star flower indicates human emotions purified and transmuted into compassionate love. The childish male figure in the Fool's cap recalls key 0, or Uranus, which, exalted in Scorpio, here implies that the highest gift is purified love. The cross, commonly called Saint Andrew's cross, if the cross of humility. The significance is that while we "become as little children" (Matthew 18:3) or believe as little children on the earthly plane, we manifest our progress."
Kilted Kat
22-04-2006, 07:26
...Perhaps the 6 of cups poses the question: will you protect/nurture or exploit/degrade?
In the 6 of wands are we being asked whether we will lead or follow?
In the 6 of swords are we being asked whether we will go [develop] or stay [stagnate]?
In the 6 of pents are we being asked whether we will give [of ourselves to others] or retain [self-interest]? ...pentacles: giving and recieving. also notice that thw figure on the right is (somewhat) trying to grab the coins or whatever they are (matter of interpreation) on the boot of the one who holds th scales.
wands. the figure on the horse is the leader but he is also being led and protected by the three wand bearers flanking him. those behind are following the parade.
swords. is the figure steering leading or is he just taking orders. are the two his captives (extreme interpretation) or his payers.
cups. is the larger figure of the town hallship represented on the left or not a part of the town at all. only the figure on the right has a foot showing, is *she* stepping foreward to share or to take. and of course teh mitten and dress as oppposed to the shorter dress and bare hands.
all of these cards have very blatent contradicting symbols, and they are all connected in terms of symbolic representation i belive with (confusing) Gemini Duality.
These are all excellent points. The querent can be either the lead-player in the card or the supporting actors!
A note about Gemini, which can in itself be duplicitous: Is the Gemini Castor and Pullox, emblems of brotherly love; or is it Romulus and Remus, quintessence of sibling rivalry; or Damon and Pythias, symbol of friendship that goes much, much further?
I know this is an older thread, but thought I'd throw some more information into it.
Having reviewed this larger image http://learntarot.com/bigjpgs/cups06.jpg
did anyone else notice the ARROW between the first two cups on the ground? I never noticed it before. It points towards the steps and the area where the "guard" is walking. Also, the FIRST cup (on the ground) has a flower pointing backwards, so...I think Pamela Colman Smith was trying to get our attention on the guard....or the "going back" thing.
When I see this card I DO think about the past...and innocent, helpful, loving (non-sexual) compassion...the thing we're probably born with before we get distracted in this overly-competitive, commercial world.
I see the two main characters as friends...or perhaps brother and sister....with the older of the two bending at the knee to compassionately allow the younger of the two to smell the flowers. The older child is being kind and considerate to the younger child....helpful and compassionate.
I just took another look and never noticed that both children are wearing the same type of hood. The girl's is harder to discern as having that long "tail," but you can see a gap at the back of her head.
Hmmmm...looking again...I may see at least one other arrow. Does anyone see an arrow just under the left corner of the cup the boy is holding? It's pointing downward. Now, I may just be reading into this too much, but it looks like the word "YODS" is spelled out in the greenery just under that arrow. Does anyone else see it? Or an "RWS" (?) on the ground in-between the 2nd and 3rd cups?
Anyway...just thought I'd add my two cents on this thread.
Having reviewed this larger image http://learntarot.com/bigjpgs/cups06.jpg
did anyone else notice the ARROW between the first two cups on the ground?
Hey, there's all kinds of patterns that can be seen in dots, lines and squiggles. Look at the dots on the ground to the right of the girl. Turn the card counterclockwise - the dots form the outline of a dog with his tail curled over his back running up the back of the girl. I never saw that before. Now, what does it mean?
Mary
I went back to my Universal and Radiant decks.... The Radiant RWS does not have any of the peculiar ground markings.
The Universal RWS has SOME of the markings, but they are very faint.
My guess is...the recolored versions might have wanted to use a background (ground) with more contrast to the figures. The Original RWS seems to have the girl's yellow polka-dot top the same color as the ground.
I suppose it pays to START with the Original RWS....because I think Pamela Colman Smith knew what she was doing!